How real is the threat?
ISIS uses its ideology to recruit people and make them commit ‘suicide’ and kill ‘infidels’ to safeguard its ideology of a caliphate which is ruled by an Amir al-Mu’minin (Commander of the faithful), a role currently held by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) also known as Da’ish has been posing a major threat to the world community in recent past. Yet alone in July, ISIS conducted several terror attacks, including the café shooting in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 29 people, vehicle attack in Nice, France, killing 84 people, shooting at a shopping district in Munich, Germany, killing 10 besides suicide bombings in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan claiming hundreds of lives. The child bomber in a Turkish wedding on 23 August, killing 54, was also suspected to be from ISIS. Later, ISIS also claimed the responsibility for the 9 September suicide bomb attack in Baghdad that killed at least 40 people.
According to a New York Times analysis, more than 1,200 people outside of Iraq and Syria have been killed in attacks inspired or coordinated by ISIS. Despite several attempts to bomb the territory held by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the extremist organisation has still been able to carry out the above-mentioned large-scale terror attacks.
ISIS uses its ideology to recruit people and make them commit ‘suicide’ and kill ‘infidels’ to safeguard its ideology of a caliphate which is ruled by an Amir al-Mu’minin (Commander of the faithful), a role currently held by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The ideology is so powerful and tempting that it easily attracts people from around the world, mostly the young and educated. ISIS thrives on the ever growing radicalisation around the world and believes that whosoever rejects their idea, should be killed. For them, killing is legitimate – It is not a sin, it is a way straight to heaven. Otherwise, who could be so insane to slit the throat of an 84-year old priest in France and kill hundreds of innocent unarmed people in an instant?
The ISIS threat cannot be undermined in Pakistan as well as it has claimed the responsibility of most of the recent terror attacks in Pakistan, especially in Balochistan. Lal Masjid ‘burqa cleric’ Maulvi Abdul Aziz had pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2004 while the bus attack in Safoora Goth in May, 2015 was also claimed by ISIS. Recently, the responsibility of the attack outside Quetta’sCivil Hospital on 8 August that took more than 70 lives was claimed by a militant faction of Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, that has pledged allegiance to the ISIS. ISIS also took the credit of the attack on Police Training Centre, Quetta on 24 October killing 61 cadets, and suicide blast at Shah Norani Shrine in Khuzdar District of Balochistan on 12 November killing at least 52 people, which is certainly an eye-opener for the Pakistani civil-military leadership that seems to be in a state of denial regarding the presence of ISIS in the country.
Last year in January, ISIS announced its organisation in Afghanistan-Pakistan region named as Khorasan province while the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) has, time and again, arrested suspects belonging to this militant organisation. The CTD on Thursday claimed to have smashed an eight-member cell of ISIS in Lahore. Earlier, the security forces on 28 August claimed to have arrested six suspected militants, including an ISIS leader from Nushki area of Balochistan. According to official data, at least 44 members of the militant outfit have been arrested from different cities of Punjab, including those who had attacked some media houses in Faisalabad, Lahore and Sargodha.
Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, however, rejected the threat ISIS poses to Pakistan in an earlier statement, saying: “Da’ish does not exist in Pakistan and the terrorist groups operating in the country appear as Daesh’s franchises.”
DNA talked to various analysts about the militant group making its way in Pakistan and the government’s position on the ongoing war against ISIS in Middle East.
ISIS claims responsibility for almost all high profile attacks in the world, not only in Pakistan, said Amir Rana, security analyst and director of Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies.
“These terrorist outfits usually play a bluff. ISIS has a nexus with other terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in the country so they don’t completely play the bluff here”.
The recent arrests of militants belonging to ISIS in Karachi and Lahore show that they have a presence in Pakistan. However, we cannot say that the security establishment is taking serious action against these militants as a proper outcome is not visible, he further said.
“The gains of ISIS for claiming the responsibility of attacks in Pakistan are clear because when they own such attacks, they attract the younger generation of terrorists who are very small minded as in their perspective, this is their Jihad,” said another security analyst Ayesha Siddiqa.
We have no such threat from ISIS. This is more of a definitional problem. ISIS does have a network in Pakistan but its centre of gravity is more extended in Middle East, she said, and added they have not yet come to Pakistan but their concepts are interconnected with the militant outfits already existing in Pakistan. We have people over here who support their ideology, Siddiqa said.
About Pakistan’s position on war against ISIS in Middle East, the analyst said that we have a neutral stance that is “to hide that we do not support Bashar al-Assad’s regime”. The sympathies of people like Hafiz Saeed and Tahir Ashrafi in Pakistan are against the Assad regime, she said. Siddiqa was of the view that apparently the security establishment is not taking any action against the militant outfit.
“Claiming attacks is a very good advertising of their power. By claiming such attacks, the profile of ISIS grows as the militant elements in the country get attracted to their radical ideology,” said senior analyst and columnist Ayaz Amir, while talking to DNA.
The government and army used to deny the presence of ISIS in Pakistan when its footprint was not available in Afghanistan but now, disaffected Taliban have become its support base in Afghanistan and so ISIS has tried to set up its presence in Pakistan as well, Amir said.
Amir went on to say that ISIS does not have a strong presence in the west but it still manages to carry out attacks there, which means it can carry out similar attacks in Pakistan. The civil-military leadership needs to wake up and take serious action against them as it will not be easy for the army chief (present or next) when the borders are so porous and such elements have support cells within the country, he said.
As we are friends with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, they prevent us from taking a clear position in the war against ISIS. Bashar al-Assad, Hizbullah, Russia and the governments of Iraq and Iran are the frontline coalition against ISIS while Saudi Arabia is against this Shi’ite and Russian coalition, he said.
It is the need of the hour that the civilian and military leadership of the country come out of denial mode and realise the gravity of the issue. Otherwise, the unqualified success of ongoing military Operation Zarb-e-Azb would go in vain, as the ideology of ISIS is far more dangerous than that of Taliban and mere military bombings and executions would not help eliminate this threat.
What needs to be understood is that it is not terrorism that causes the problem; the real problem is extremism that can only be dealt using a comprehensive strategy that challenges the ideology and mindset of the militant organisations and their militants. It is the literature that needs to be changed and the waning values of tolerance and patience that need be inculcated so that the young minds do not grow up with a ‘jihadi’ or ‘radical’ mentality and these terrorist organisations do not easily exploit the people. We must understand that it is a war of ‘words’ more than a war of ‘weapons’ and it can only be fought using logic and challenging mindsets.
